A violent protest culminated in a breakout from an immigrant detention camp Australia runs in Papua New Guinea where one asylum seeker was killed and scores were hurt, an Australian official said.
One man died from head injuries as he was taken to the hospital, Australian Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said. He would not disclose the asylum seeker's nationality, or say how he had sustained the injuries, AP reports.
Papua New Guinea police opened fire after hundreds of male detainees pushed down the perimeter fence and spilled into the street around the Manus Island camp late Monday, Morrison said. The camp's security guards had used shields to push back the asylum seekers, he said.
One asylum seeker was shot in a buttock and was flown to the Papua New Guinea capital Port Moresby for hospital treatment, he said. Another was flown to Australia for treatment of a fractured skull, he said.
Morrison initially said the injuries had occurred outside the camp during violence that ended early Tuesday morning.
He later said he was uncertain whether the fatal injuries had been inflicted within the camp or outside.
Papua New Guinea authorities would investigate, he said.
Papua New Guinea national police spokesman Dominic Kakas said a police investigation had not yet been mounted.
Ian Rintoul, spokesman for the Australian advocacy group Refugee Action Coalition, said he had spoken to inmates inside the Manus camp and was told asylum seekers had been attacked by police and local residents.
Gangs of police and locals _ armed with machetes, pipes, sticks and stones _ had roamed from compound to compound within the camp attacking asylum seekers, the coalition said.
“It must be clear now that asylum seekers cannot live safely on Manus Island,'' Rintoul said in a statement.
But Morrison and the contractor that operates the camp, G4S, denied that any outsider had breached the perimeter fence or attacked anyone inside the camp.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott discussed the violence with his Papua New Guinea counterpart Peter O'Neill.
Amnesty International condemned the camp and joined Australian opposition parties in calling for an independent investigation of the violence.
G4S said camp staffers were trying to account for all the detainees.